Administrators discuss sexual assault policy progress

One year later, 85 percent complete.

That’s where Director of the Carolina Women’s Center Christi Hurt pegs the progress of the University’s new sexual assault policies.

Hurt was one of five panel members who spoke to about a dozen students Tuesday about UNC’s efforts in the past year to revise sexual assault protocol on campus.

“The fact that UNC has taken the time to go through the whole process as extensively as (Hurt) has thus far is really quite unusual,” said Howard Kallem, the Title IX compliance coordinator who was hired in January.

Hurt serves as the chairwoman for the Sexual Assault Task Force since the beginning of the summer. She said she hopes to have a complete draft of the new policy in the coming months.

She said the task force is constantly revising the policy, saying they have a new draft every other week.

Deputy Title IX Officer Ew Quimbaya-Winship said he was pleased with how much the task force has accomplished in the past ten months.

“We’re going soup to nuts, the whole thing, in a year’s time,” he said.

“I think it’s excellent and remarkable we’ve gotten as far as we have.”

Quimbaya-Winship said the progress is largely due to the increase in resources available for students.

“Part of that is capacity,” he said. “Eleven months ago, there was no me. Now I’m here. There was no (Kallem) here two months ago, now there is. We’re building capacity.”

Kallem said one of the challenges facing the task force is to organize a network of groups that includes organizations like the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Housing and Residential Education.

“We want to identify and knit together existing resources,” he said. “And then once we do that, we’ll be in a better position to identify gaps.”

At the end of the forum, students broke into small groups to discuss what had been said.

Many talked about the need to change social norms in order to better address sexual assault on campus. They talked about the idea of having training incorporated into LFIT courses.

Student Body President Christy Lambden said the newly elected SBP Andrew Powell should have an open door policy in regards to hearing students’ concerns.

He said the office can be a way to promote awareness across campus and hold officials accountable.

“I do truly believe there is no more important issue facing Carolina at the moment,” he said. “We can talk about athletics, we can talk about academics — none of that matters if students don’t feel safe.”

Lambden, along with the rest of the panel, emphasized the importance of student feedback on the new policy.

Hurt said once the task force finishes drafting the policy, it would be broadcast to allow students to respond to it. She said the job of the task force will not end with the completion of the new policy.

“We all know that this isn’t so we can open a door that we’re going to turn around and shut once we get a policy dusted up and out the door,” she said.

All members of the panel addressed the question of students trusting the system after a questionable track record.

“It’s going to take time,” Quimbaya-Winship said. “We can’t say ‘trust us.’ That doesn’t work; we’re not Indiana Jones.”

Kallem said the key to earning back students’ trust is ensuring that each part of the process works as it should in accordance with the new policy.

“Once the policy is out, we’re not done,” he said.

“It’s going to be a constant process.”

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